Fare Wars Are Taking Off for Shuttle Passengers : Airlines: Consumers are finally starting to get a price break on those popular Los Angeles-San Francisco shuttle routes. Competition is intense, which may cause a whole new set of problems in the era of deregulation.

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when air fares between cities less than an hour apart by jet were fair and reasonable, even cheap. A one-way ticket between Los Angeles and San Francisco was $32, and a seat on the New York City-to-Washington shuttle was $29.

But not recently. When I needed to fly to San Francisco from Los Angeles at the last minute, the only fare available was the “regular” full-coach fare of $186 . . . each way.

This fare (round trip: $372) was nothing short of skyway robbery. But I didn’t have a choice. I paid the fare.

Life is not much easier on the East Coast. A ticket on either the Pan Am shuttle or the Trump Shuttle between Washington and New York City’s La Guardia Airport costs $119 each way, representing a 20% hike from just a few months ago.

The two most heavily traveled air corridors in the United States apparently have become the two most profitable . . . if you happen to be an airline.

A recent California State Public Utilities Commission study indicated that intra-California air fares increased a whopping 40% in 10 years. And shuttle fares in the Boston/Washington/New York market have zoomed even higher during the same period.

About the only airline not flying between Los Angeles and San Francisco is Aeroflot. American, United and USAir control the majority of the market.

But virtually every other major U.S. carrier--ranging from Pan Am, Northwest and Continental to Alaska Airlines, America West, TWA and Delta--flies the route.

According to one recent survey there are 656 flights a week in this corridor (up from 614 two years ago). And that number is going to go higher.

Within the past few weeks many airlines have increased their flight frequency on these routes dramatically.

American Airlines offers 16 hourly nonstop flights from Los Angeles to San Francisco and 12 daily flights from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

USAir has hourly service from Los Angeles to San Francisco, and 17 flights a day.

United has boosted flight frequencies to 27 daily round trips, with flights leaving every half-hour between Los Angeles and San Francisco. And in five days United will add two more departures, raising the total to 29 flights.

In addition, two days ago Delta began hourly Los Angeles-San Francisco service.

The skies are getting crowded, as every airline fights for a piece of this very profitable pie.

What’s a passenger to do?

Wait for a fare war--and that’s beginning to happen, at least in California.

A large battle is being waged between--and over--the two busiest air corridors in the United States: Los Angeles-San Francisco, and in the East, New York-Washington and New York-Boston.

But the biggest battle is in California.

“With so much new competition,” says American spokesman Al Becker, “it’s clear that there will be overcapacity in the market. The marketplace will decide what fares will be charged. That’s what deregulation is all about.”

Already, the marketplace has decided that it’s a good idea to start lowering some fares.

Southwest Airlines started the fare war with an unrestricted $59 fare between Burbank and Oakland when it began service on the route in April.

“We are selling that fare on every seat and every flight,” says spokesman Don Valentine. “We’re not playing any hide-and-seek games with these fares.” (Some carriers matched the Southwest fare but limited the number of seats sold at that price.)

Then came Delta, adding hourly service--17 flights--that also added 3,400 seats a day to the market. But why now?

“We identified the market as very strong, and we had the planes and the gates to commit to it,” says Bill Berry, a Delta spokesman. “And our frequent fliers told us they wanted the service.”

Delta has committed four 737s to the shuttle service and will handle the departures in both directions between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m.

When Delta announced its service it also announced a $99 fare (still steep, but better than the $186 fare), which was quickly matched by American, United and USAir.

Delta also announced an upgraded food service on the shuttles: fruit, raisins and selected muffins and nutbreads, plus complimentary California wine and French-roast coffee.

Other airlines were quick to compete with their own shuttle perks, including double mileage for frequent flier members. Or, in the case of USAir, 1,000 bonus miles earned in addition to the regular minimum 750 flight miles earned for each segment.

Some airlines offer close-in departure gates for the San Francisco or Los Angeles shuttle flights, plus free newspapers. And in some cases, free parking for up to three days.

The new competition may eventually lead to even lower fares, but one serious problem remains. With all the new flights, many of them leaving at the same time, who’s kidding whom? How can on-time performance be maintained?

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Los Angeles International is not a slot-controlled airport (La Guardia; Newark, N.J.; John F. Kennedy in New York; O’Hare in Chicago and Washington National are the only such airports in the United States).

At a slot-controlled site the airport has complete control of its runway schedules and capacities. At all other airports in the age of deregulation, if an airline has an available gate to park an aircraft, it can schedule a flight.

“The limits for an airport like LAX,” says Robert Marx, a DOT spokesman, “are the physical limitations, repair of runways and weather. If an airline wants to fly more flights out of a particular airport, there is nothing we can do to stop them. Airlines file their flight plans, but we don’t have control over routes in this deregulation environment.”

At LAX, on clear-weather days, the FAA reports that the maximum the airport can handle is 65 arrivals and 80 departures. This adds up to 145 flights per hour; on bad weather days, the numbers drop to 63 arrivals and 78 departures maximum (141 flights total).

At peak morning hours at LAX (7 to 9 a.m.), when just about every airline has at least three and sometimes as many as five shuttle flights operating, the average number of flights arriving and departing per hour is 125.

Considering that only two of the airport’s four runways are used for departures, and assuming an equal number of landings and takeoffs, that’s about 62 takeoffs an hour on two runways.

If you factor in time delays between takeoffs and the different types of aircraft used, you don’t have to be a math whiz to figure out that the new shuttle wars will also create some serious delays on the ground . . . and that’s in good weather.

“It’s the old fight between scheduling and capacity,” says Elly Brekke, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration’s Western-Pacific region. “With these numbers it will be impossible to get them all out on time. Someone will always be sitting on the ground.”

What about the shuttle fares on the East Coast, the nation’s busiest route? No one is dropping prices (there is still a special $79 fare on Saturdays, and from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Sundays).

Instead, a growing number of passengers have decided that the real cost--in time and dollars--of taking the shuttle has become prohibitive. Indeed, factoring in the cost of an average taxi ride to the airport from Manhattan ($12), waiting time, cost of the shuttle ticket ($238), average taxi costs to and from the airport in Washington ($20) and a taxi back to Manhattan from La Guardia ($12) runs nearly $280.

The same trip, including taxi costs, on Amtrak will cost you about $172, more than $100 less.

“The only time shuttle fares will decrease,” says one airline official, “is when members of Congress, who are frequent fliers on the service, begin to complain loudly.”

That has already begun to happen in California. Some California legislators whose travel budgets apparently can’t handle the expensive intra-state shuttle fares have decided to do something about it.

Initial legislation has passed the state Senate to create a state-run airline that would operate between Northern and Southern California.

The bill, authored by Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles), calls for the creation of “Golden State Air,” partly in response to the PUC study.

Ideally, a state-run airline would offer tickets at lower cost to the traveling public. The bill has cleared the Senate Governmental Organization Committee and is destined for hearings before the Senate Appropriations Committee. Stay tuned.